


maybe just a good book and a heart to break (August)

by paynofile



Series: One Year [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute, Cutesy, Declarations Of Love, Drabble, Flower Crowns, Flowers, Fluff, Headcanon, Love, M/M, No Sex, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Realistic, Reality, Requited Love, Short, Short One Shot, Summer, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 21:36:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1793944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paynofile/pseuds/paynofile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something about the sun and the daisies and being far away from everyone else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	maybe just a good book and a heart to break (August)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Bit By Bit" by Mother Mother  
> Part of the "One Year" series  
> Please note that this is 100% fluff. Enjoy :)

_No I won’t bring too much of anything_   
_Maybe a little slicker for the rain_   
_Maybe just a good book and a heart to break_

-Mother Mother:  _"Bit By Bit"_

* * *

 

 

There was nothing but the picnic blanket between Louis and the sun-warmed earth. He breathed deep into his back and felt the grass almost touching his skin. It was August, and a hot one at that, but Harry had always had a knack for finding breezy spots on scorching days, and this was no exception. The picnic-spot-finder himself was sitting a few centimetres away from Louis' arm, which felt like much too far, plucking daisies from amid the browned grass and slowly weaving them into a flower chain. His hands had become darker than usual from the last few months of uncharacteristically uneventful weather. Louis pondered the possibility that global warming had stopped England's messy weather, and then decided not to think too hard when there was a boy like Harry Styles in jean cutoffs within finger's length from him. 

They were on a much-needed break, squirreled away from the rest of the world at the one house Harry had managed to keep a secret. It was positioned smack dab in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields and forests and a few farmers now and then. Louis had fallen in love with the old white farmhouse the moment he'd stepped inside to see dark wood and vintage appliances and flowers blooming everywhere. Some portions of the walls had even been transformed into flower beds. 

It was Harry's house, technically, but it was really theirs. Here, they could play out their own little fantasy of coming home to one another and watering plants and lying in the sun and talking and, above all, being alone for at least a little while. They'd never even invited the boys up here. It was all theirs. 

Louis bridged that vacuous gap between his fingertips and Harry's thigh with a lazy finger, and began tracing circles in Harry's tanned skin. Everything about today was lazy, from the way they'd woken up (Louis cuddled gently under Harry's arm, blankets half off, sunlight streaming through their dusty window) to their breakfast (egg on toast, Harry's specialty, with oranges that bled sticky juice all over their hands and faces) to now, as they lounged without a care in the world in their backyard that seemed to stretch for ages. Harry's eyes roved from the finger dancing on his skin along the arms attached to it all the way to Louis' face, partially obstructed by the too-long locks of golden brown hair that were falling into his eyes.

"Hey," Harry mumbled through sun burnt lips. Louis just smiled and laid his full hand across Harry's leg. "A bit forward today, are we?"

"Maybe you're just extra hot today," Louis giggled.

"Must be the sun."

"Must be."

They fell back into the summer glaze that seemed to hover over everything today. It blurred the edges of Louis' thoughts and made his eyes hazy. There was something special about Louis in the sun, like he was a reptile that needed to soak it up to live. Harry suited summer as well, especially the cutoffs and unbuttoned flannels that came with it, but Louis was the true "summer boy" of the two of them. His skin maintained its tan all year, waiting to be justified, and he knew that the way his hair bleached out a bit was all too flattering. (This he had gathered from the way Harry's hands and eyes lingered in it longer than usual. )

"August," Louis started.

"Far away from everything," Harry said, finishing the daisy chain he had been working on and tying it into a circle.

"Do you ever feel that August is our no-man's land?"

"In what way?"

"Well," Louis said, fumbling for how that sentence had been logical a moment ago. It was that haze settling over everything; it made it hard to think. "Well, your birthday is long gone, and mine isn't for another four months, and we don't have any awards shows to go to and we're not even on tour right now and we've got this place- this place in the middle of nowhere. We're far away from everything out here."

"Everything does feel like another world." Harry smoothed Louis' hair and set the ring of flowers down on his head. "Did you know that they're sending people to Mars soon, Lou? 2023. That's when they say they're going to have people living on Mars. Isn't that crazy?" Harry looked to the boy whose head was now migrating into his lap, and took his starry eyes as encouragement to go on. "This is like our Mars. It could almost be another planet. Just you, me, and this picnic blanket. "

"No clothes?" Louis teased.

"Who needs clothes on Mars?"

"Not us, I guess." Louis' head was now fully cradled in Harry's lap, his eyes turned heavenward with Harry's face blocking his view. Then again, Louis thought, maybe that wasn't so far off. "But what I mean is that this is where we meet in the middle. This farmhouse doesn't know who we are. We're just people. Just people lying in a field with no shoes on. And I like that, that anonymity."

Harry's long arms slid down Louis' sides and in until they were closed around the smaller boy's chest. Louis felt safe, but more than that he felt a part of something. He felt like he could see the sun moving down toward the horizon and he could taste the honeysuckle in the air and he could feel Harry's heart beating, because together he and Harry were more than people in a field. They were one body with four arms and two hearts and far too little shame. 

"I love you in August," Harry murmured into Louis' hair. "I love your eyes, and how they shine, and how you glow in the sun, and how you always forget your sun cream and end up bright red after a day at the beach, and I love swimming in the lake at night with you, and not minding that I'm drowning if I have your arms around me."

Louis closed his eyes for a moment to take in the sweetness of the prickly grass on his legs and Harry's words ringing in his ears and the smell of daisies blowing through him. He melted into Harry, allowing himself to take up every empty crevice in his body. 

The thing is, Louis loved Harry like August, like the month of inbetweens and butterflies and camping. He loved Harry like moths fluttering at a lamp over and over again and like mosquito bites that you can't help but itch. Their relationship was a summer sort of special, and it could be measured in seashells just as easily as kisses or smiles or afternoons stretched out in the only breezy place in the backyard, or even in pulses or heartbeats or breaths or movements of the fingertips. Louis loved Harry because the sun rose and Harry loved Louis because it set every night. And this was the way they found their August where they could, in cupboards or days off or hotel rooms or patios or each others arms.

Louis could never lose the hazy glow of summer when he looked at Harry, because he loved Harry like he felt heat on his back, like blasting off into space and making a home on Mars.

**Author's Note:**

> I can be found on tumblr at teeneage.tumblr.com  
> Please check out the rest of the series if you liked this!


End file.
